The coconut panna cotta with tropical fruit is a refreshing dessert that belongs to the list of little guilty pleasures we can indulge in now and then to make our days sweeter. Being completely vegan, in this recipe we’ll use plant-based cream and canned coconut milk, and most importantly we’ll leave out gelatin entirely and replace it with the gelling agent agar agar.
Agar agar is a red seaweed, therefore entirely plant-based, and can be easily found in the specialty sections of supermarkets; look for it among vegan/vegetarian products or in macrobiotic sections. If you don’t feel like preparing fresh tropical fruit, you can buy it ready-made in jars, the syrup-packed kind. Also try the chilled cake with yogurt and melon, which is equally vegan like the coconut panna cotta with tropical fruits.
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 2 cups liquid cream (plant-based)
- 3/4 cup coconut milk (from a can)
- 3/4 cup powdered (confectioners') sugar (about 3.5 oz (100 g))
- 1 teaspoon agar agar (about 6 g (0.2 oz))
- 1 vial vanilla (optional)
- as needed tropical fruit in syrup (pineapple, papaya, passion fruit)
Preparation
Dissolve the agar agar in half a shot glass of the plant-based liquid cream taken from the recipe amount.
Open the can of coconut milk, stir it, and then measure out the amount required.
Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan: the liquid cream, the coconut milk, the powdered sugar, and the agar agar you dissolved earlier.
Mix the mixture well and cook over low heat until it reaches the first boil. Stir constantly, and after 5 minutes turn off the heat.
Pour the panna cotta, still hot, into a large mold or into small pudding molds and place it in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours.
When it is firm, remove the coconut panna cotta from the mold and serve it with canned tropical fruit in syrup or with fresh fruit cut into cubes.
